Feather River Nature Center

The Feath­er Riv­er Nature Cen­ter fea­tures the Bath House Muse­um, which pro­vides nature edu­ca­tion pro­gram­ming, exhibits por­tray­ing local wildlife, basaltic boul­ders as well as paint­ings. Its grounds are also home to var­i­ous native plants, trees and ani­mals. The Cen­ter also fea­tures bench­es, trails and lies above the breath­tak­ing back­drop of the Feath­er River.

The Feath­er Riv­er Nature Cen­ter and Bath House is oper­at­ed by the City of Oroville’s Parks and Trees Depart­ment. The facil­i­ty is staffed by the Oroville City Docents Asso­ci­a­tion and the grounds are cared for by parks staff and vol­un­teers from the Friends of the Feath­er Riv­er Nature Cen­ter, a non­prof­it sup­port organization.

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Hours

• Park: Open year-round
• Bath House: April-Octo­ber on Sat­ur­days from 10am-2pm
• Annu­al Win­ter Clo­sure: The Nature Cen­ter is closed Novem­ber-March annually

Ameni­ties

• Bath House Museum
• Pic­nic Tables
• Restroom
• Riv­er View
• Trail Access for Walk­ing and Biking

Details

• Loca­tion: Entrance locat­ed at Mont­gomery St and Old Fer­ry Road
• Nature Cen­ter: Open every day from sun­rise to sunset
• Bath House Muse­um: Open Sat­ur­days April ‑Octo­ber from 10am-2pm
• Guid­ed Tours: Guid­ed tours of the grounds & muse­um are avail­able any day of the week and can be request­ed by call­ing (530) 538‑2401

His­to­ry of the Area

The bank of the Feath­er Riv­er below the Bath House was once the site of a Maidu fish­ing vil­lage. The riv­er pro­vid­ed a boun­ti­ful sup­ply of giant Chi­nook salmon and acorns were har­vest­ed from the groves of Blue Oaks. Gold was dis­cov­ered in the Feath­er Riv­er in 1849 bring­ing a tent city of for­tune hunters vir­tu­al­ly overnight. The gold soon ran out and the min­ers left as quick­ly as they had appeared.

As the need for recre­ation increased, the Feath­er Riv­er became the ide­al place for fish­ing, swim­ming and pic­nick­ing. This area was estab­lished as a City Park in 1926.

The Bath House was built in the mid 1930’s and pro­vid­ed show­ers and restroom facil­i­ties for the swim­mers and sun­bathers. In Decem­ber of 1937, a major flood took out the beach area, large trees, and altered the riv­er, cre­at­ing a dan­ger­ous under­tow, mak­ing it no longer suit­able for recre­ation. The Bath House was soon then abandoned.

In the fall of 1996, a group of com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers gath­ered to clear the old bath house and in the process, decid­ed to reclaim ​“Oroville’s first city park” and make it into a Nature Center.